Prose (Gadya): Comprehension and Textual Understanding
Prose (gadya) in the Madhyamik Santali First Language paper tests whether you can read a Santali passage in Ol Chiki and do four things: retrieve stated facts, follow sequence and cause, infer character and motive, and explain a word or phrase as it is used in that sentence. The passage may be prescribed or unseen; the skills are the same.
What the questions actually ask
- Literal: who, what, when, where - answer in one line.
- Sequential: what happened first, and why the next event followed.
- Inferential: how a character felt, or why the writer calls something good - you must point to a word or action in the passage.
- Lexical: what a word means here, not in a dictionary.
- Global: the main idea or a suitable title.
A reliable method
Read the questions before the passage, underline the question words, then number the paragraphs. Answer in the passage's own vocabulary but in your own sentence shape. For inference, use the formula claim + because + evidence: 'The old men were disappointed because the text says the fish-sellers had already gone.'
Worked example
Passage line (translated illustration): 'The old men reached the market before the sun was high, but the fish-sellers had already gone.' Question: Why did the old men fail to buy fish? Weak answer: 'They were old.' Strong answer: 'They arrived late relative to the fish-sellers, who had already left before the morning was over.' The strong answer uses the contrast marked by but, not an assumption about age.
Traps that cost marks
Writing a paragraph for a one-mark question; confusing the narrator with the author; missing a negative ('not', 'never'); copying a whole sentence instead of answering; importing Bengali spelling into Santali words; inventing detail not in the passage.